Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Bats Come Alive in 9-5 Win Over Valpo

Behind the strength of 15 hits and 9 runs, IU picked up its 13th win of the season (13-17 overall) by defeating the Crusaders of Valparaiso 9-5 this afternoon. Alex Dickerson led the way for the Hoosiers with 3 hits and 3 RBIs, including his conference leading 10th homerun of the season. Second baseman Tyler Rogers also had 3 hits, including a triple, in the winning effort, and Brian Lambert (RF) and Evan Crawford (CF) each added 2. Both Crawford and Vince Gonzalez (3B) drove in 2 as the Hoosiers rebounded from a very poor showing at Louisville a day earlier.

On the mound, Matt Carr (1-3) picked up his first win of the season in relief of starter Joey O'Gara (7H, 4R, 2BB, 1K). In 3 innings of work, Carr gave up 1 run on 2 hits and 1 walk while striking out 1. Chris Squires closed out the game and picked up his first save of the season, yielding only a single hit and 2 walks while striking out 4 in 2.2 innings. Coach Tracy Smith praised Squires performance and attitude on the mound. “He’s a fiery competitor,” he said. “I wish more guys would compete like that. If you got the entire dugout on the opposing side cursing you out, it means you’re probably doing something right. I love it. We needed that today.”

Even though Valpo is nowhere near the team Louisville is, it was still nice to see the IU bats come to life again heading into this weekend's showdown with Iowa. Let's hope for more of the same at the plate against the Hawkeyes. Check back for a preview of the series later tonight or tomorrow. Go Hoosiers!

4 comments:

  1. Great to see Carr and Squires both pitch well bc we will probably need them at some point this weekend.

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  2. George,
    Right on! We can never have enough good pitching. All the runs in the world won't matter if we can't get the other side out in a timely manner.

    Well done pitching staff!!

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  3. George and NHF, I couldn't agree more

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  4. Carr and Squires only gave up 3 hits in 5.2 innings. Bring that confidence and attitude into the weekend and these 2 along with the big 3 will be tough to beat...especially if we get the run support we know we can get!

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